Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book is a book of poetry for children written by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) and originally published in 1872. The original edition of Sing-Song contained 121 poems and 120 illustrations by Arthur Hughes. The poems are untitled, but are listed in a table of contents by first lines (Rossetti Sing-Song). The dedication in the book reads: “Rhymes dedicated without permission to the baby who suggested them.” It is believed that this dedication is for the nephew of Rossetti’s previous beau, James Bagot Cayley (Touche). An expanded version overseen by Christina Rossetti was published in 1893 shortly before her death (Kooistra 97). This edition contained 126 poems, and the same 120 illustrations by Arthur Hughes that were present in the first edition.
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Sing-Song was published over two years after it was completed, following complicated negotiations involving four separate publishers (Kooistra 92). Alexander Macmillan, the publisher of Christina Rossetti’s previous books, would only publish Sing-Song on the condition that he could have complete control over the production and illustration of the book (93). Rossetti refused and sent the book to the publisher F. S. Ellis, who had published a volume of poetry by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When that agreement soured, due to both Ellis’s concerns over the expense of publishing such a lavishly illustrated book and concern over the quality of the prospective illustrator Alice Boyd (95), Sing-Song was taken up by Roberts Brothers publishing company in Boston. Roberts Brothers agreed to publish the book in the United States, and in turn sent the manuscript to the Dalziel brothers to engrave the illustrations (Rossetti Sing-Song). The Daziels sent it to Routledge and Sons, who ultimately published Sing-Song in England.
Christina Rossetti did not, in her early career as a writer, intend to write for children. When asked in 1862 to contribute to an illustrated anthology of poetry for children, which included several female poets, Rossetti refused; “it so happens that children are not amongst my suggestive subjects, and I could not venture to promise you anything at all worth of such plates” (Rossetti Letters 1: 158-159). Despite this, after the publication of Sing-Song Rossetti went on to publish another book for children entitled Speaking Likenesses (1874), a collection of stories, also illustrated by Arthur Hughes.
Arthur Hughes’ illustrations in Sing-Song were closely overseen by Rossetti, who often used her own sketches as suggestions (Roberts 78). Rossetti had initially wished to illustrate her works herself, but did not feel that her talents as a visual artist were sufficient for the task (78). An amateur artist and friend of Christina Rossetti’s, Alice Boyd, was next enlisted to do the artwork for Sing-Song. Boyd was not an experienced illustrator, and her illustrations were eventually dismissed as inadequate by both Rossetti and her publisher (Kooistra 95). Arthur Hughes was then engaged to illustrate Sing-Song. He was both at this time an experienced children’s book illustrator, and a great fan of Christina Rossetti’s work (Kaston 307). Rossetti’s previous books, Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince’s Progress (1866), were illustrated by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but the switch to another illustrator does not appear to have caused any ill will, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti was very supportive of Hughes’ work on Sing-Song, saying “there is no man living who would have done my sister’s book so divinely well” (Rossetti, D.G. 3:1035).
Sing-Song spanned a few genres of children’s literature in vogue in the Victorian Era. Poems like “A pocket handkerchief to hem” and “How many seconds in a minute?” reflect the public appetite for moral and instructional poems for children, as evidenced by popular anthologies such as Little Lays for Little Folk (London 1867), and Chimes for Childhood (Boston 1879)(Garlitz 539). Other of Rossetti’s poems in Sing-Song are akin to the popular nonsense poetry of her contemporary Edward Lear, in which the sounds of words are privileged over their meaning (Landow). These poems have no moral or lesson to them, and often do not make any literal sense. One example is Rossetti’s poem “When fishes set umbrellas up”:
When fishes set umbrellas up If the rain-drops run, Lizards will want their parasols To shade them from the sun. (Rossetti, Sing-Song 66)
Indeed when Sing-Song was reviewed in the monthly literary magazine The Academy in 1872 it was considered alongside Lear’s More Nonsense and Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense sequel Through the Looking-Glass (Colvi 23). Other poems in the collection had a darker tone. Many of the poems in Sing-Song allude to death and loss, as reviews noted at the time of publication. One anonymous reviewer in the journal Athenaeum called the collection “some of the saddest...verses of our time”, while another in Scribner’s Monthly suggested that some of the poems in Sing-Song would “haunt pensive children of maturer years” (Anon. 11; Anon. 629).
Sing-Song was re-issued in 1924 in an edition that remained in print until the early 1970’s. Several changes were made to this edition from the originals in attempt to make it more appealing as a children’s book. Firstly, new illustrations by Margueritte Davis replaced to original Hughes images. Davis’s images were more pastoral and cheerful than the original illustrations. The poems were also reorganized in the table of contents into categories such as “In the Country” and “Lesson Time”. Finally, many poems were omitted from this edition, particularly those poems addressing the death of a child, including “A baby’s cradle with no baby in it” and “Baby lies so fast asleep”. The 1924 edition of Sing-Song contains 85 poems, 41 having been cut from the previous edition.
--C.M./Engl386/UVic/Fall2012
Works Cited
Colvin, Sidney. “Rossetti’s Sing-Song.” Academy 3:40 (1872): 22-23. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Garlitz, Barbara. “Christina Rossetti's Sing-Song and Nineteenth-Century Children's Poetry.” PMLA 70.3 (1955): 539-543. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Kaston, Andrea. “Speaking Pictures: The Fantastic World of Christina Rossetti and Arthur Hughes.” The Journal of Narrative Technique 28.3 (1998): 305-328. Web. 21 Oct 2012. Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. Christina Rossetti and Illustration. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2002. Print. Landow, George. “A Universe of Words: Nonsense as a Literary Mode.” The Victorian Web. 2 July 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/childlit/nonsense.html Roberts, Helene. “Christina Rossetti and Illustration: A Publishing History.” Victorian Periodicals Review. 39.1 (2006): 77-79. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. London, Eng: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Print. Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. London, Eng: Routledge and Sons, 1872. Print. Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1924. Print. Rossetti, Christina. Letters of Christina Rossetti. 3 vols. Ed. Antony Harrison. Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1999. Vol. 1. Print. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Vol. 3. Ed. Oswald Doughty and John Robert Wahl. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977. Print. Touche, Julia. “Christina Rossetti’s Biographical Situation in 1872.” The Victorian Web. 15 March 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/touche2.html Unsigned. “Christina Rossetti’s Sing-Song.” Athenaeum. 2306 (1872): 11. Print. Unsigned. “Children’s Books.” Scribner’s Monthly. 3 (1872): 629. Print.
Sing-Song was published over two years after it was completed, following complicated negotiations involving four separate publishers (Kooistra 92). Alexander Macmillan, the publisher of Christina Rossetti’s previous books, would only publish Sing-Song on the condition that he could have complete control over the production and illustration of the book (93). Rossetti refused and sent the book to the publisher F. S. Ellis, who had published a volume of poetry by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When that agreement soured, due to both Ellis’s concerns over the expense of publishing such a lavishly illustrated book and concern over the quality of the prospective illustrator Alice Boyd (95), Sing-Song was taken up by Roberts Brothers publishing company in Boston. Roberts Brothers agreed to publish the book in the United States, and in turn sent the manuscript to the Dalziel brothers to engrave the illustrations (Rossetti Sing-Song). The Daziels sent it to Routledge and Sons, who ultimately published Sing-Song in England.
Christina Rossetti did not, in her early career as a writer, intend to write for children. When asked in 1862 to contribute to an illustrated anthology of poetry for children, which included several female poets, Rossetti refused; “it so happens that children are not amongst my suggestive subjects, and I could not venture to promise you anything at all worth of such plates” (Rossetti Letters 1: 158-159). Despite this, after the publication of Sing-Song Rossetti went on to publish another book for children entitled Speaking Likenesses (1874), a collection of stories, also illustrated by Arthur Hughes.
Arthur Hughes’ illustrations in Sing-Song were closely overseen by Rossetti, who often used her own sketches as suggestions (Roberts 78). Rossetti had initially wished to illustrate her works herself, but did not feel that her talents as a visual artist were sufficient for the task (78). An amateur artist and friend of Christina Rossetti’s, Alice Boyd, was next enlisted to do the artwork for Sing-Song. Boyd was not an experienced illustrator, and her illustrations were eventually dismissed as inadequate by both Rossetti and her publisher (Kooistra 95). Arthur Hughes was then engaged to illustrate Sing-Song. He was both at this time an experienced children’s book illustrator, and a great fan of Christina Rossetti’s work (Kaston 307). Rossetti’s previous books, Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince’s Progress (1866), were illustrated by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but the switch to another illustrator does not appear to have caused any ill will, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti was very supportive of Hughes’ work on Sing-Song, saying “there is no man living who would have done my sister’s book so divinely well” (Rossetti, D.G. 3:1035).
Sing-Song spanned a few genres of children’s literature in vogue in the Victorian Era. Poems like “A pocket handkerchief to hem” and “How many seconds in a minute?” reflect the public appetite for moral and instructional poems for children, as evidenced by popular anthologies such as Little Lays for Little Folk (London 1867), and Chimes for Childhood (Boston 1879)(Garlitz 539). Other of Rossetti’s poems in Sing-Song are akin to the popular nonsense poetry of her contemporary Edward Lear, in which the sounds of words are privileged over their meaning (Landow). These poems have no moral or lesson to them, and often do not make any literal sense. One example is Rossetti’s poem “When fishes set umbrellas up”:
When fishes set umbrellas up
If the rain-drops run,
Lizards will want their parasols
To shade them from the sun. (Rossetti, Sing-Song 66)
Indeed when Sing-Song was reviewed in the monthly literary magazine The Academy in 1872 it was considered alongside Lear’s More Nonsense and Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense sequel Through the Looking-Glass (Colvi 23). Other poems in the collection had a darker tone. Many of the poems in Sing-Song allude to death and loss, as reviews noted at the time of publication. One anonymous reviewer in the journal Athenaeum called the collection “some of the saddest...verses of our time”, while another in Scribner’s Monthly suggested that some of the poems in Sing-Song would “haunt pensive children of maturer years” (Anon. 11; Anon. 629).
Sing-Song was re-issued in 1924 in an edition that remained in print until the early 1970’s. Several changes were made to this edition from the originals in attempt to make it more appealing as a children’s book. Firstly, new illustrations by Margueritte Davis replaced to original Hughes images. Davis’s images were more pastoral and cheerful than the original illustrations. The poems were also reorganized in the table of contents into categories such as “In the Country” and “Lesson Time”. Finally, many poems were omitted from this edition, particularly those poems addressing the death of a child, including “A baby’s cradle with no baby in it” and “Baby lies so fast asleep”. The 1924 edition of Sing-Song contains 85 poems, 41 having been cut from the previous edition.
--C.M./Engl386/UVic/Fall2012
Works Cited
Colvin, Sidney. “Rossetti’s Sing-Song.” Academy 3:40 (1872): 22-23. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Garlitz, Barbara. “Christina Rossetti's Sing-Song and Nineteenth-Century Children's Poetry.”
PMLA 70.3 (1955): 539-543. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Kaston, Andrea. “Speaking Pictures: The Fantastic World of Christina Rossetti and Arthur
Hughes.” The Journal of Narrative Technique 28.3 (1998): 305-328. Web. 21 Oct 2012.
Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. Christina Rossetti and Illustration. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press,
2002. Print.
Landow, George. “A Universe of Words: Nonsense as a Literary Mode.” The Victorian Web. 2
July 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/childlit/nonsense.html
Roberts, Helene. “Christina Rossetti and Illustration: A Publishing History.” Victorian Periodicals
Review. 39.1 (2006): 77-79. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.
Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. London, Eng: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Print.
Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. London, Eng: Routledge and Sons, 1872. Print.
Rossetti, Christina. Sing-Song. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1924. Print.
Rossetti, Christina. Letters of Christina Rossetti. 3 vols. Ed. Antony Harrison. Virginia: University
Press of Virginia, 1999. Vol. 1. Print.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Vol. 3. Ed. Oswald Doughty and John
Robert Wahl. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977. Print.
Touche, Julia. “Christina Rossetti’s Biographical Situation in 1872.” The Victorian Web. 15 March
2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/touche2.html
Unsigned. “Christina Rossetti’s Sing-Song.” Athenaeum. 2306 (1872): 11. Print.
Unsigned. “Children’s Books.” Scribner’s Monthly. 3 (1872): 629. Print.